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‘Twas a poll…

Edited 9/19: XD

I finally found a hack that’s supposed to show userpics in the Generator style, so I’m going back to that. Yup! But I’m still playing with it. Such ugly code…

Things to know: One reason why I ended up buying a one-year subscription is to have the comment page styles the same as the front page. This way, I could show the Index links on every page of my Livejournal (in case someone got to a specific entry, in the old style the front page link isn’t that obvious and they couldn’t go directly to a specific section).

I also require “quick reply” functionality, and only a handful of Livejournal styles have this capability: Generator, Unearthed, Tranquility II, The Boxer, Smooth Sailing, Gradient Strip, and Expressive. You can see the style previews here: http://www.livejournal.com/customize/preview.bml

The only technical problem with this Generator style is that the width is fixed. I have it set to 1000 pixels, thinking that most people are on 1024. I’m not sure if that scrolls or not, because my resolution is 1280. (To be honest, if you have a lot of horizontal scrolling issues, you REALLY should try out Opera 9. I love my friend forever for that.)

I think I found a hack that forces this style to use a percentage width instead of a hard-coded number (yay!), so it’s set at 90% or something. Hopefully that works a lot better.

Hm, that’s odd. I’m afraid I don’t know the exact particulars about polls on Livejournal since this is my first time using one. ^_^;; But at least no horizontal scrolling is a very good thing. Eh, I’ll play with colors, but honestly, my LCD isn’t great with color accuracy, so I’m afraid of it. As long as it’s easy on the eyes, I’m fine with it myself. None of that bright orange on bright blue silliness.

You can’t quite stop people from voting over and over again if they’re from “anonymous” people.

Anyway, I suppose it’s one of those things they do to use as an incentive for people to sign up. After all, they get money from the advertisements and it looks nicer when there are numbers showing how many people have signed up, and so on.

Yup, the grey’s quite okay. I am still trying to poke enough holes so that the pictures of our beloved kaichou-sama and the Kewpie addict show, though.
*not-so-subtle hints*

But I guess you can’t have it all. ^^;
Since you want the links up and such.

The ONE THING that is bothering me the most about this layout style is the lack of entry userpics. I’m missing my Natsuki/Shizuru/FreakyMikoto pics that I use to organize! T_T Maybe I can find a hack somewhere.

…Actually, I may just close the poll and start over soon, if I don’t get a support response about the userpics. I may be able to just fake it and use HTML, though.

-____-
Um, that’s what I meant with the holes.
Me poking holes in the entries with the naginata and stuffing the Shizuru and Natsuki pictures back in?

I’ve always liked how you alternated between them for “Syncope” instalments and how you’ve got the scary-red-glow-face (and now I know it’s supposed to be Mikoto) for “general” entries and such.

The awesome part is how there’s a similar mood/grace to Shizuru and Natsuki in the user pictures. But then, now you can add up to thirty of ’em, can’t you? It’d be awesome coming up with something, methinks. Except that I also like the simplicity with what you’ve set up. The flower, though, doesn’t really match? Or maybe there’s an allusion or something that I’m not really picking up.

I don’t get it. How come people who write well get less enthusiastic responses than people who write horribly? I mean, I’m not trying to indirectly compliment you or blah, but it’s obvious that you write a lot better than at least 90% of the fanfiction that I’ve seen “out there”.

Does quantity take precedence over quality in people’s eyes? =\

I really like how you’re gradually polishing “Syncope” up.

-__-
I’m still not quite sure what “syncope” is referring to in your fanfiction, though. That bit when Shizuru was originally @_@ or what? Or am I supposed to “wait and see”?

> Um, that’s what I meant with the holes.
Me poking holes in the entries with the naginata and stuffing the Shizuru and Natsuki pictures back in?

Well, danged if I can’t figure out subtlety. ^_^;

I’ll definitely get the userpics figured out, though. They’re pretty important, too. I’ll wait a day or two first, however. Oh, I’d never put that many userpics into this particular journal. The random flower one is just for the sticky, or any other “stickies” I might put up.

And thank you for the implied compliment. :P Maybe it’s quantity, maybe the amount of brainpower required to read a piece, maybe a lot of different things. I figure I’m writing for a much narrower audience than the rest of the fandom, though (e.g. the confession thing). Also, because I set high standards for myself, it’s only natural that some of that filters to what I expect from readers; if I ask for more detailed critiques, I suspect the vast majority of people wouldn’t comment at all. I think? I mean, a lot of people are in school right now. Who wants to think? ^_^;

I have a sneaking suspicion that “syncope” may actually be referring to the first definition you listed instead, but I can’t figure out how it fits in. I get a feeling it has something to do with the Three Stooges.

*raises hand*
I remember someone else commenting on how the mosquito bite was the vector, and you sort of ignored it/sidetracked/evaded it. Muahahahaha.

Ehhh… I’ve yet to read a fanfiction that pulls the confession thing off quite so well. Natsuki kissing Shizuru back has always kind of bugged me, since if you put that side by side with the homophobia thing… eh.

Well, I have noticed that most of the people who comment at least don’t use extensive chatspeak. The occasional thing still irks me, though. I mean, if someone wrote “ocassional”, or something.

if I ask for more detailed critiques, I suspect the vast majority of people wouldn’t comment at all.

*cough*
I think it boils down to people not knowing what to give a critique on, except for saying this is good and that is in character, and whatnot. See, when I just read through “Syncope” without paying it much mind– in the sense that I wasn’t actively looking for mistakes– I didn’t notice much of anything wrong. Like I said before, it’s awesome (but unfamiliar) to be working on the more subtle things in writing since you’ve got the technical stuff down pat, pretty much.

*coughdiscreetcough*
*grins*
Homophones!

And hah, thinking about Mai-HiME is always good.
It’s my favourite anime, hands down.
Mind, it does have its (very) stupid bits, but I’ve mostly blocked them out now.
I only wish Tomoe were one of the HiME. You, of course, do not share that sentiment. =)

Eh, I don’t like the “latter comments” so much, since it’s just ego-boosting or ego-stroking or something, in my opinion.

I’m just going out on a wild limb here– but gee, you don’t suppose the things that aren’t criticised on… are the things that are okay and don’t need fixing up? </dry>

Well, what I really mean is, I think that sticking the odd compliment here and there IS important (so that you know exactly what you’re doing right) but it should never really be the bulk of a useful, helpful, actually-helps-writer review.

–> Oh my gosh, you’re writing is so nice! I love how Shizuru is so Shizuru-like, and how Natsuki is so Natsuki-like! And Nari is so Nari-like, and your characters are awsome! I usually don’t like original characters, but you SO pull it off.
Like, I’m waiting for your next chapter with baited breath and stuff.
Write more!
NOW!!!!

Or else I’m going to go on a personal vendetta, LOL OMG.

Uh… right.
Hmm. I wonder if that was slightly too mean-spirited.
(This is part of what “batty” is comprised of. Please refer to my comment about how spelling and grammatical errors drive me “batty”. Whoever said “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” has got it alllll wrong. I imitate to… mock. *wry*)

*gesticulates a bit*
I don’t have much to complain about the current layout now, but it may be a bit easier on the eyes if you had a light grey-ish background with black font, OR a dark background with light grey font.
I personally don’t find it “eye-blinding”, but… that’s my two cents’ too scent’s worth!

Well, I wasn’t really thinking of those “WRITE MORE! OMG!!111!111” things, I guess. ^_^;; For example, if someone just leaves a short comment about how a specific dialogue was nice (and yes, someone seemed in-character), I still think that’s great. I don’t think I have too many of the “WRITE MORE! OMG!!111!111” ones. But if I had only gotten those kinds of comments, then yes… that’s not all too helpful.

Anyway, re:</dry>–maaaayybe. If that’s the case, would I rather have a small, gushy comment than no comment? I honestly don’t know at this point. The problem with “no comment” is that silence can also mean something. Maybe people just aren’t reading. Livejournal doesn’t have counters and things like that, after all. (Not that I’d rely on them; I’ve decided never to publish on ff.net or Mediaminer since counting numbers really distracts, I think.)

*bows flourishingly*Can you imagine a little fishie and it baiting its breath? *gurgles fishie bubbles*

True that, with silence it’s kind of hard to tell whether people are reading your stuff or not. But I rather have silence than to have comments with no real substance to it, in this case. But that wouldn’t happen to me, since I wouldn’t be posting it up in the first place.

A point to make: I find it really sad that some authors come just short of beg for (empty) reviews. I’m more of the mind that such things cannot be… forced.

Hm, yes, no review begging… but I will beg for good critiques. ^_^; Oh, and actually demanding reviews for more chapters–that’s just choppity-chop-chop-worthy. ~_~; (“Really, hon, you weren’t that good.”)

Ahh, I’ll just wait on colors until I get more opinions. :P The purple you have looks just slightly darker than the one I’m already using (more blue, perhaps). There isn’t enough difference for me to rehack the code, unless the lavender I chose looks more like neon fuschia to most people (I can’t tell; it looks nice and dull on my screen).

Well, obviously not neon fuschia, but the blue definitely looks more muted, and the lavendery purple is just so incompatible with the blue in my opinion.

Eh… “begging” for critques puts me off, but if you’re using it loosely in the sense that you’ve been using it so far, obviously I have weird issues with it since I’m talking to you. :3

I suppose you could argue that the blue is muted and the lavender is more “vibrant” and “out there” because of Natsuki and Shizuru’s personalities, but I think the purple doesn’t go well with the background blue either. But oh well. I’ll probably get used to it after a while. Hopefully.

Never mind. :P The color picker never seems to look right when actually applied (taking a little square of color and then stretching it to a big bar makes it look different) and on my LCD, both look equally muted. [shrug] ^_~ Unless someone offers an actual hex code, whatever.

No, I can’t just browse around and see various colors, because what my LCD shows doesn’t match other people’s monitors; no two monitors have identical default color profiles unless they’re the same model. :P

Hmmm, counting 15 friended, and if I’m generous with the number of anons, maybe 20 total regulars. :D Which isn’t terrible, I suppose, considering I only post to one public thread anywhere on the internet.

I’m changing color ONE LAST TIME. So unless anyone has legibility issues, this is it. Hmph! Nothing more out of you, “I,” or I’ll start dishing out punishment. :D

Wow, I just realized something: Anon posters may not see the “quick reply” functionality. :P I was logged out and tried to reply to this, and it loaded a different page with just your comment instead of opening a little Javascript box underneath! Interesting.

And shush! >:P I tried the first one of your hex codes, and it looked awwwwful, LOL.

Hah. That’s probably the reason why I don’t get what you meant with the “quick reply” thing. I don’t even know how it’s supposed to work. ^^;

And yeah, my bad. =P
I sort of… ah, “forgot” that text would have to go on it so I didn’t really take that into account. It wasn’t as dark when I saw that little rectangle of it, but like you said… it just looks different after you stretch it out.

Something more productive? Like sticking brackets in sentences, perhaps? XD

It’s impossible to please everybody, so the most important is to please yourself – with the layout that is;)

OK – warning – here is my and only my opinion, which shouldn’t be taken into consideration :D

Yes, the userpics being visible is quite important (and nice), because you use them in context – and they’re easily recognizable.

Just one funny thing – generally I read ‘my friends’ entries on ‘my friends’ page, so I see my (very bad)layout there (and I see there the userpics!), and when something is under the cut it leads to specific entry, which is pretty often in ‘the raw’ layout – what means that I often don’t have idea how the real layout of somebodys’s LJ looks like at all^^’.
There some exceptions with some layouts, and unfortunatelly mostly not nice – ie making reading and commenting more difficult for the lamer like me :D.
Why?
Because:
– there is not enough contrast between text and the background. Everything different than black/white is risky. Well, probably I used to white background while reading, but it’s really easier.
– letters are smaller. Not good when we talk about reading.
– borders. I see you coped with that perfectly, but in most layouts with borders text was narrow, what made reading less comfortable. And border system in comments made them not very clear (yes, sometimes I read other people’s comments and I like to know who answered whom ;)).
– for some reason in these styles quoting in comments was a big pain (copy/paste – almost unworkable)
– reply and other buttons – for sure not userfriendly (where are they?, which means what?=D).

Oh my…and I thought I had no opinion.lol.

So this layout of yours I see comfortable to read and easy to use (every-entry-menu:))- almost perfect, but it doesn’t mean that there is nothing to change ;).
And the colors – well, it’s up to you. Just remember, that people who read your LJ, for some unknown reason probably tend to like blue and violet ;)

Yes, what is up with blue/purple??

LOL.
I see the color case was explained to you in details =D.
Other note: it is said that 70% of population likes blue.

and since I’ve read the comments above – one(?) word from me about critique of your story: it’s quite hard to make any useful comment – your writing is good and probably this story is of this kind that there is not much to say without knowing the whole picture. So, yes, what you plan to do next and how you plan to end the story – is paramount now, I guess.